Submission
Types - Presentations & Panels
The Presentations category consists of two types of sessions:
PresentationsPanelsA printable version of the Call for Participation, tailored for presentations and panels, is available.
Presentation
SessionsPresentation sessions focus on a practitioner’s ideas and experience with usability methods, skills, philosophy, design, business case studies, or other relevant topics. The UPA expects all presentation sessions to include substantial time for audience participation. Allow at least one-third to one-half of the time for discussion, exercises, or hands-on experience. Presentation length can be 90 minutes or 40 minutes.
No UPA conference presentations, papers or other sessions may demonstrate or publicize a commercially available product. Presentation titles may not include product or company names. Presenters should refrain from any product endorsements. If you have questions about this policy, please contact the conference co-chairs.
Panel
SessionsPanels feature three or four people presenting their ideas and experiences relating to usability methods, skills, philosophy, design, or other relevant, controversial, emerging, or unresolved issues. Panels may be conducted in several ways, such as comparative, analytic, or historic.
UPA recommends limiting panels to four members to allow ample time for discussion. Sessions are 90 minutes of which 30 to 45 minutes must involve audience interaction.
BenefitsThe primary presenter, or the facilitator for a panel, receives a 20% discount on conference registration. Unfortunately, we cannot offer discounts to multiple presenters at this time.
Submission
InformationAll submissions must include two documents: a description of the panel or presentation contents, and background information about the presenters. Please use the UPA-provided templates to prepare these documents. In addition, you will complete forms online with additional information when you submit your presentation, as described in “Submitting Your Proposal.”
1. Description of Presentation or Panel (4 pages minimum, 6 pages maximum, 1MB maximum file size)
Include the following items in your Description:
Title:
Include the title on each page of the Presentation Description in the header.Abstract:
Provide a 50-word synopsis of your submission. The abstract will
appear in the Advance and Final Programs for accepted submissions.Indicate
the duration of your proposed presentation (40 or 90 minutes).Describe
the learning objectives of the presentation. Focus particularly on the “take-home”
aspects that attendees will be able to use immediately on their jobs.Describe
in detail the material that will be covered in the presentation.Explain
how the presentation will be conducted, e.g., lecture, demonstration.Provide
a schedule of events with time allocation.Describe
and provide samples of materials (handouts) that you will include in the
presentation notes.If
you previously have presented the proposed material at UPA or another conference,
your UPA proposal should include the number of conferences at which you
previously presented the materials and how you have modified your materials
for UPA 2004, if applicable.New
for UPA 2004 for all submission types – Without using names or other
clearly identifying information, describe your professional history of working
with the material you will be presenting. We realize that this can be difficult,
but this section is intended to help reviewers understand the depth and
length of your work in the topic of this session. Examples: “The speaker has worked as a usability consultant for 8 years, and has given several presentations on this topic at national and international conferences.”
·"The speaker is a graduate student in a Human Factors program. The research described in the presentation is part of the speaker’s thesis."
2. Your Background
In a separate document, describe in one or two paragraphs the relevant background and experience of each presenter, including presenter names and their affiliated organizations. Background description should not exceed 150 words for each person. This description will be used in all published information about the presentation or panel.
To facilitate the blind review process, the background document of your submission will not be sent to the review panel. Some information from the submission process (e.g., keywords, audience, etc.) will also be provided to reviewers. To keep your identity confidential:
· *Do not include your name, product name (noncommercial products only), or organization on any page of your Description, including headers and footers.
· *Be sure to remove your name and organization from the Property settings in your document.
During the online submission process, you will fill out a series of forms that ask for additional information. Several of these questions will help UPA classify the audience and subject matter for your presentation or panel. Please read the section, “Preparing Your Submission” before submitting your presentation proposal.
Review
Questions & GuidelinesUPA will evaluate presentation proposals on the basis of their anticipated benefit for prospective participants and on their fit with the presentation program as a whole. Factors to be considered include originality, practicality, relevance, appeal to the UPA audience, suitability for presentation format, and use of presentation methods that afford participants with opportunities to interact with the presenter and other audience members. Presentation submissions must demonstrate that the coverage of the topic will fit in the proposed timeframe, including audience participation.
Reviewers will evaluate all presentations on the basis of these questions:
1. Presentation strategy: Do you agree with the submitter’s presentation strategy?
2. System, product, or project focus: Do you agree with the submitter’s system, product, or project focus?
3. Topic category: Do you agree with the submitter’s topic category?
4. Topic keywords: Do you agree with the submitter’s keywords?
5. Importance: How important do you think this topic is to the usability field?
6. Practicality: To what extent would this presentation provide practical tips, tricks, and techniques that can be applied in the workplace?
7. Value to attendees: Will the session provide direct benefits that attendees can apply immediately to their jobs?
8. Audience: How effectively does the submitter address the needs of his or her targeted audience? See the section “Target Audiences.”
9. Interactivity: Will the session be interactive enough to stimulate interest and involvement?
10. Theme: In your opinion, how well does this topic fit the conference theme (“Connecting Communities”)? While UPA encourages submissions tied to the conference theme, it is not required. This is an “added value” in evaluating submissions.
11. Originality/Novelty: How well does this presentation provide original or new content for returning conference attendees? Novelty is an “added value” for submission topics; UPA recognizes that established topics continue to be important to the UPA membership, and that new insights and new perspectives often come from re-examination of established issues.
12. Demonstration of Quality: How well does this presentation address quality issues? That is, how well does it position the methodology used in comparison to established experimental methods, or acknowledge where tradeoffs were made and why? These qualities are difficult to assess because the criteria for quality change depending on the topic and how the topic is approached. Evaluation based on rigor may not be appropriate in many cases, and may vary radically depending on the kind of work being presented. However, it is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with existing literature on the method or topic you are discussing. See “Quality Guidelines” for more information.
13. Challenging: How well does this presentation challenge UPA mainstream thinking? How well will this presentation stimulate and promote “outside the box” discussion?
14. Speaker’s Background: In what way will the speaker’s background contribute to the quality of presentation? Does the speaker’s background match their chosen topic to speak on? That is, if this is an advanced topic does the speaker have an advanced degree, have they presented this topic before or have they been practicing usability for a longer period of time? How much experience does the speaker have with the presentation topic?
15. Overall Assessment: Would you accept or reject this proposal?
As a submitter, you will receive anonymous reviewers’ comments in response to these questions.
TemplatesUPA provides templates both for presentation submissions and for biographical information. These templates guide you through the process of building a submission that will describe your material in a way that will help both you and your reviewers to evaluate your submission against the review questions. We strongly urge you to use these templates.
Download
the presentation template Download
the panel template Download
the biographical information template ExamplesSome examples of outstanding submissions from past years are available. Reviewing these examples will give you some insight about what makes a strong submission, and what kinds of things that UPA reviewers look for.
Presentation
example 1: more.than.alt.proposal.pdf
Presentation
example 2: beyond.compliance.proposal.pdf
Presentation
example 3: security.proposal.pdf
Panel
example 1: how.many.proposal.pdf
Panel
example 2: roi.proposal.pdf
*Thank you to Kara Pernice Coyne, Cory Knobel, Carl Turner, Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed, and Optavia Corporation for permission to use these examples.
After Your Presentation is Accepted
UPA will notify submitters of the status of their submission by December 22, 2003. If your presentation or panel is accepted, you will need to provide UPA with your presentation slides and the accompanying paper by April 9, 2004, in order for UPA to include these in the conference proceedings. You will also be expected to provide handouts for session attendees.
In the event that your presentation is not accepted, UPA encourages you to consider incorporating reviewer feedback to your materials, and resubmitting as a poster, which has a later deadline schedule. Note that the poster submission format is different from the presentation submission format.
If you are accepted, you will be asked to confirm your participation. Once you confirm, you are expected to give your presentation, or arrange for an equivalent substitute presenter.
Important
Dates for Presentations and PanelsSubmissions are due: October 20, 2003
Submitters notified by: December 22, 2003
Presenters are required to provide presentation materials for the conference proceedings by: April 9, 2004
For more information:
Contact Presentations and Panels Co-Chairs:
Merryl Gross (merrylg@alum.mit.edu)
DeeDee DeMulling (ddemulling@comcast.net)
Carol Smith (carol@kognitive.com)
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